Exploring Relationships between Legal Concepts in the United States Supreme Court

Bommarito, Michael

doi:10.2139/ssrn.1814169

Abstract

Download This Paper | Share | Email |Add to Briefcase | Purchase Bound Hard Copy

Exploring Relationships between Legal Concepts in the United States Supreme Court

Michael James Bommarito II

Bommarito Consulting, LLC

November 5, 2009

Abstract:
We empirically investigate the properties of concepts within the United States Supreme Court corpus using LexisNexis(R) headnotes. By analyzing the relationships between concepts, we uncover structure embedded both within cases and across cases. Furthermore, we estimate the dimensionality of the Supreme Court concept space and thus identify the dominant concepts of the corpus both within a given period and cumulatively. These results provide insight both into the history of these legal concepts and the Court as a whole, proving valuable to a wide range of legal scholars.

Number of Pages in PDF File: 23

Keywords: United States Supreme Court, headnotes, concept map, citation, co-occurrence, dimensionality, legal network, judicial citation

JEL Classification: C63, K40, K, D71, D72

working papers series

Download This Paper

Date posted: April 19, 2011

Suggested Citation

Bommarito, Michael James, Exploring Relationships between Legal Concepts in the United States Supreme Court (November 5, 2009). Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1814169 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1814169

Contact Information

Michael James Bommarito II (Contact Author)

Bommarito Consulting, LLC ( email )

Troy, MI 48098
United States
16464503387 (Phone)

HOME PAGE: http://bommaritollc.com/